00:00 Four men have been convicted of the murder of Ashley Dale following a seven-week trial
00:07 at Liverpool Crown Court.
00:09 Twenty-eight-year-old Ashley was shot dead in Old Swan last year.
00:13 On Monday, a jury found James Witham, Sean Zeiss, Niall Barry and Joseph Pears guilty
00:18 of her murder.
00:19 Witham, 41, of Ashbury Road, Highton, had previously admitted to being the gunman who
00:25 fired the fatal shot.
00:27 One of the key pieces of evidence that has come out throughout the trial is undoubtedly
00:34 Ashley's phone.
00:36 In my experience of criminal prosecutions, it has been unprecedented for a victim to
00:43 foretell her own death, which is effectively what she has done through the voice notes.
00:50 Ashley narrated her own story, starting from Glastonbury in June of 2022, right through
00:56 to just a few days before her death in August of 2022.
01:02 Ashley's boyfriend, Lee Harrison, had been the intended target of the gun attack after
01:07 a dispute with Barry had been reignited at Glastonbury earlier in 2022.
01:12 Harrison, who was described in court as a drug dealer at odds with a rival gang, was
01:17 not there at the time of the attack.
01:21 CCTV was extensive.
01:24 Just short of 2,000 hours of footage was reviewed by my team and pieced together key movements
01:29 and criminality across a space of a period of two months.
01:33 A total of 3,360 exhibits were seized, of which 139 were digital devices, but of no
01:41 most and the most significant was the evidence recovered from Ashley's phone, which was
01:45 recovered just an arm's length away from her.
01:49 The sheer volume of data contained on this device meant that intense attention to detail
01:53 was required.
01:54 For me, as a senior investigating officer, this was the most compelling and emotional
01:59 part of the case.
02:02 It's the first time I have ever seen the evidence of the murder victim play such a
02:07 crucial role in a court case.
02:10 Ashley was narrating her own story and events that led up to her death.
02:15 There was barely a dry eye in the courtroom as her increased fear and anxiety was played
02:19 out through recovered voice notes from her phone.
02:23 At 12.30am on Sunday 21st August 2022, a gunman forced his way into her home on Leinster Road,
02:31 indiscriminately firing a number of shots before going upstairs and discharging a further
02:37 five rounds from a Scorpion submachine gun.
02:41 Ashley was subsequently found in the back garden with a fatal gunshot wound.
02:46 Let this be a message to those intent on causing misery through the use of firearms and serious
02:51 organised crime that their criminal enterprise here in Merseyside will not be tolerated and
02:58 we will find you.
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